NSW Upper House passes abortion exclusion zones bill

Exclusion zones around abortion clinics are one step closer to becoming law, after the NSW Upper House passed a bill aimed at protecting women from interference and harassment while accessing the clinics.

In a debate that spanned the course of the day, and drew impassioned speeches on the right to privacy and dignity, as well as staunch opposition in defence of free speech, the bill ultimately passed with clear majority support on Thursday evening.

The bill, which would amend the Public Health Act, proposes establishing 150-metre “safe access zones” around abortion clinics.

Inside the zone it will be illegal to obstruct or interfere with a person accessing or leaving a clinic; to communicate "in relation to abortions" in a manner that could cause "distress or anxiety" to a person accessing or leaving a clinic, and to record and distribute visual data of a person without their consent. Penalties include up to six months jail for a first offence, and 12 months for a subsequent offence.

Nationals MLC Sarah Mitchell, Minister for Early Childhood Education, said her decision to support the bill was informed by her own traumatic miscarriage when she was 10 weeks pregnant in January 2017.

Loading

Ms Mitchell, her voice wavering with emotion, told the chamber of her devastation at being informed by doctors her baby no longer had a heart beat, and she would require a surgical procedure.

“I can't imagine what it would have been like to have been entering a place for treatment after losing my baby and to have been harassed and called names, or shown pictures, or filmed, or even handed pamphlets," she said.

"In reality it could have and most likely would have pushed me over the edge when I was at my most fragile.”

The NSW bill is very similar to Victorian legislation now the subject of a High Court challenge that will test the constitutional validity of the "communication offence" against the implied freedom of political communication.

Liberal MLC Taylor Martin, who opposed the bill, said outlawing discussions on abortion inside the zone could prevent family members from engaging "in a last minute conversation about what is about to take place".

Scott Farlow, a Liberal MLC, also condemned the communication provision, describing it as "an unnecessary and egregious limitation on both freedom of speech and freedom of religion".